Tuesday, 25 September 2012

I Wrote This For You by pleasefindthis

I Wrote This For You

by pleasefindthis

Summary: "I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this
for you and only you. Everyone else who reads it, doesn't get it."

Started
2007, I Wrote This For You is an acclaimed exploration of hauntingly
beautiful words, photography and emotion that's unique to each person
that reads it. This book gathers together nearly 200 of the most
beautiful entries into four distinct chapters; Sun, Moon, Stars, Rain.
Together with several new and exclusive entries that don't appear
anywhere else, each chapter of I Wrote This For You focuses on a
different facet of life, love, loss, beginnings and endings.

So I sometimes read this blog, and I really liked the guys writing, and then I realised he had published a book of the kind of stuff he posts on his blog and decided to get it.

I really like the book. I should've read it differently though - I read it from start to finish, in one sitting, just because I had it on the Kindle app on my phone and I was bored at my mums one day...and reading it like that, cover to cover, while I still appreciated his writing, it did get a bit monotonous at times. I wish I'd just read little bits at a time (which is rare for me, but I don't often read poetry or books that aren't in a traditional story format).

Anyway, back to the point: the book was good.

He is one of those writers who manage to write things that, even though they're specific to his life and written to/about people he loves or people he lost, he manages to make the things he writes relatable to so many other people - I found myself reading some of the things he wrote and thinking, "Yes, that's exactly it. That's exactly how I felt when..." and I think writers that can do that are great.

There's photography in the book too, one to go with each poem. I liked some of the photographs, but overall was a bit underwhelmed by them, they were a nice touch when paired with the writing though.

I'm kind of struggling to review this, because I can't just tick off the usual review talking points with poetry.

Characters? There weren't any, because it's not fiction (as far as I know), so I can't discuss it like they're fictional. It made the book feel very... human.

Plot? There wasn't one. At least not any linear, set in stone plot that can be figured out. Sometimes I would try and figure out the situations that made him write the things he did, but that was just guessing really (some of the pages read like he was addressing them to someone who broke his heart while some almost seemed to hint at the person having died - but that could just be me projecting my own life onto his words based on what memories they dragged up for me).

Writing...well, I've talked about that one. And I'll leave you with a couple of my favourite poems from the book (my favourite of the whole book is a bit long to quote/screenshot):

"And if you can't say yes, answer anyway. Because I'd rather live with the answer than die with the question.""You can join the millions talking in the dark. Or you can stand up and scream light, out into the night."

I guess that's all I have to say. I'd rate it 4 stars out of 5 (would've been 3, but I know my enjoyment of the book was lessened by reading it all at once instead of a bit at a time).